The invention relates to a process for attaching an aircraft nose landing gear having at least one nose wheel to an aircraft tractor, whereby the aircraft tractor and the nose wheel are moved towards each other on an apron until they make contact. A shovel of the aircraft tractor which receives the nose wheel is lowered until it touches or almost touches the apron and, after receiving the nose wheel, it is raised together with the nose wheel. The invention also relates to an aircraft tractor with a chassis showing a fork-shaped recess, as well as with a raisable and lowerable shovel arranged in the area of the recess for receiving an aircraft nose landing gear having at least one nose wheel. The aircraft nose landing gear is moved on the apron toward the aircraft tractor until it is in a limit-stop position.
In the case of a known aircraft tractor of this type (German Published Patent Application 3801855), when it is lifted up, the nose wheel of an aircraft is gripped from behind by the gripping arms of a gripping and pull-in device and pulled on to the lowered shovel of a stationary aircraft tractor. Since the aircraft must be moved for the nose wheel to be picked up, the aircraft nose wheel can only be pulled on to the shovel when all the passengers are seated and the passenger bridges have been retracted. This can lead to delays in clearing the aircraft which is ready for take-off. Moreover, the known aircraft tractors must have a very heavy construction, so that when the nose wheel is pulled nearer, the static friction force of the braked aircraft tractor is always greater than the breakaway resistance of the much heavier aircraft. In addition, the supporting rollers which act upon the flexible bearing surfaces of the nose wheel do not produce a continuous forward movement of the aircraft, but rather a jerky forward movement.